Many people, through disease or injury, may become bed ridden for greater or lesser periods of time. While confined to bed, the person's options for keeping occupied are severely limited. Many people so confined prefer to read as one means for passing the time during their convalescence. However, holding a book up above while laying on one's back for any length of time is tedious and exhausting. In fact, there is a significant subset of individuals who have suffered such debilitating injuries that they have lost use of their upper extremities and no longer have the ability to hold up a book, magazine, and the like.
Devices exist that enable reclining or supine individuals to read with minimal manual interaction. One example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,927, issued to Howell, is a book holder that sandwiches the reading material between a clear acrylic sheet and a solid backing. For this design, the reading material rests on a transparent flat plane and the pages are read through the clear material. While this type of invention permits the reclining user the ability to read without holding the book, page turning is difficult. The user must first loosen the transparent plate, reach behind the acrylic, turn the page, and then return the acrylic to its original position.
Other book holder designs sacrifice visibility for easier page interaction. These types of inventions use vertical or horizontal straps that run across a page and secure the book. U.S. Pat. No. 5,690,309, issued to Blum, illustrates a book that communicates with a solid panel by straps that vertically traverse the pages being read. With this type of device, the user loosens the straps and then turns the page.
Although the previously mentioned products allow an individual to read in a nonsitting position, page turning is cumbersome. More importantly, the various devices do not address the needs of disabled individuals with limited arm motion and strength. For individuals using a sandwiched book device, page turning is difficult, as the individual's arm must first manipulate a plate to turn a page. Inventions using elastic straps also provide a great challenge to individuals with limited arm function. If not properly released, the strap could tear the turning page. Additionally, the tucking of a page is extremely difficult. If the elastic straps run vertically across the page, for instance, the entire edge of the fibrous paper must always be parallel to the cord, otherwise the paper will crease and tear when it maneuvers past a strap. Additionally, individuals with limited arm motion and strength have difficulty interacting with devices that require strap manipulation.
There is, however, a design that permits reclining patients with limited arm motion to read and interact with books and magazines. U.S. Pat. No. 4,294,425, issued to Weber, provides an example of a device created for individuals who interact with other objects using a mouthstick. In this example, the reading material is fastened to a solid panel with an elastic strap wrapped along the binding of the read item. Clips attached to the panel secure the pages of the reading material. To turn a page, the rubber tip of the user's mouthstick presses against the paper, and the friction between the mouthstick and the page slides the paper out of the clip. Unfortunately, this device is clumsy in actual use, as the pages are difficult and troublesome to secure after the page is turned. For the device that clips the corners of the paper, only one page corner can be secured at a time, which is difficult with a single mouthstick. Additionally, the paper is easily torn when it is underneath the clip. Another problem is that as the pages accumulate, there is an increasing chance that the additional weight will cause the pages to be released by the clip. Even if tightly binding clips are used, they are very difficult to pry open using mouthstick-like devices. Regardless of the clip type, any type of paper interaction with a clip often results in the paper being creased or even torn.
What is needed is a device that provides for a user, even one of limited strength or agility, to secure reading material in a viewable position that will not have a tendency to bend or tear the pages. Such a device would be useful while the user is in a reclined or recumbent position.